Lottery games have become very popular and have proven to be successful means by which the public authorities sponsoring the games have been able to generate revenues for the welfare of the public. There are two types of games. First one is a pre-printed or an “instant win” lottery game. The second one is an on-line game, more commonly thought of as a “lotto” type game which requires that a game player fill out a game play card with series of lottery play numbers thereon and/or designate a “quick pick”, for the purpose of this application it will be “Auto Pick”, in which either an on-site lottery terminal or an off-site lottery system computer generates the lottery play numbers.
The lottery play slip is scanned into a lottery terminal, typically a stand-alone terminal found in a convenience store, supermarket or a liquor store, whereupon a ticket is authorized by the lottery system and printed at the lottery terminal. The on-line games are the types of lottery games conducted on a daily basis such as 3, 4 and 5 number games. Bi-weekly or weekly games like Lotto and Mega Money are available to play on state-wide basis in several states, as are the regional lottery games such as the Power Ball, Mega Millions and other Big Game lotteries played in the United States. Similar national and regional games exist in foreign nations as well.
As well known to lottery authorities and lottery game players, both the pre-printed and on-line lottery games are typically purchased at a retail or convenience type of store provided with the requisite lottery terminal for on-line games.
In the effort to promote the popularity of lottery games and thus improve lottery generated revenues, the respective lottery authorities have been looking for ways to expand at least the reach of the on-line lottery games to the larger population of players, as well as to reduce overhead expenses and increase profitability. The biggest expenditure is stationery printing and delivery to thousands of retailers. For every game that is available the players will have to fill out a card and the sales associate will have to run it through the lottery machine in order to print the ticket. Besides the players filling out the game cards, some cards are mismarked, spoiled and torn etc; and every card is discarded after being run through the machine and that creates tons of waste paper and a huge impact on the environment as well, as they are not recycled, good for one time use only.
The present invention addresses all the above mentioned problems and offers a clean solution to resolve all the after effects of the lotto games and at the same time will increase profitability for the States or Countries offering the on-line lotto games.
Besides eliminating the waste in form of discarded stationery, the current invention is a very active, “Interactive” lotto games selling tool. By prompting players to play more panels than one, multiple draws and multiple plays and at the end of each game switching it back to page 1 and flashing more choices of games, makes it a very desirable selling tool in the armor of the State offering to sell the lotto games to the general public.
Efforts have been made in the past by inventors to increase sales by placing a lottery terminal at each of the selected POS terminals of the store, each of which is equipped with a bar code reader or scanning device. One such approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,595 to Protheroe.
The system of Protheroe, however, is disadvantageous in that provides a relatively invasive and complicated system which positions a lottery terminal at, and requires the integration of the lottery terminal with, the store's POS terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,165 to Novak discloses a bar code lottery ticket handling system that provides a free standing lottery “pick stand” separate and apart from the POS system, but which pick stand is otherwise networked to a separate lottery device provided at each POS terminal. The use of the pick stand requires the store customers to go to the pick stand, select the numbers they wish to play or indicate that they wish to have a quick-pick series of play numbers generated for them, print a dummy lottery game ticket at the pick stand, and take it to a POS terminal for being scanned into the POS system.
Once the dummy ticket is scanned into the POS system, the lottery device at the POS terminal will detect the appropriate lottery game code, and will then communicate with either the pick stand and/or an off-site lottery system to authorize the ticket, and then print the ticket at the POS terminal. The system of Novak, however, requires once again that a “lottery device” be positioned at each POS terminal, and that the lottery device be positioned between the bar code scanner and POS terminal. So constructed, the system of Novak is invasive in that the lottery system must be integrated into each POS terminal as Novak requires a separate lottery device/terminal at each POS terminal, and an in-store pick stand networked with each of the lottery devices. Such a lottery game system may thus be somewhat costly to construct for the many types of POS systems that are available and in use, does not appear to be capable of being easily retrofitable to existing multi-lane retail store operations.
While the system of Novak addresses the lottery sales in a multi lane store operation and requires the lottery players to get a dummy ticket after the game selection, to be scanned at the POS terminal, this particular invention simplifies the whole process and lets the player pick the set of numbers for the on-line game or allows the alternative choice of a quick-pick or machine picked set of numbers and send the selection, to the main lottery terminal, completely paperless, no dummy tickets or tokens. Pay at the POS terminal and get the “Lotto” tickets.
U.S. Pat. No. 201,198,817 A1 to Behm et. al discloses a system and method of selling pre-printed lottery game tickets, on line lottery game tickets, or a combination of pre-printed and on-line lottery game tickets in a retail store. At least one lottery game token is provided bearing a game identification code thereon for being scanned at a POS terminal provided as a part of in-store POS network. The scanned identification code is detected by a POS monitor determining from the scanned code the type of lottery game to be played. The POS monitor, or a separate ticket controller in communication with POS monitor, will then issue a dispense ticket command to a ticket dispenser located at the POS terminal for each pre-printed lottery game to be played. For each on-line lottery game to be played, the detection of the game identification code will result in the generation of a random series of lottery play numbers, whereupon the POS monitor or the ticket controller will instruct a lottery ticket printer located at the POS terminal to print at least one lottery ticket thereat bearing the lottery play numbers thereon.
The systems of Behm et. al and Novak are more or less just the same in operation, the system of Behm et. al does not give a choice to the players to select their own set of numbers, in the current invention both choices are not only addressed but token and dummy tickets are completely eliminated.
The patent to Blumberg et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,649 teaches a promotional gaming method for use as a part of a promotional game system in retail stores. In Blumberg et al. a game token is given to store patrons within the store, or provided as a part of a product package. A bar code reader at the POS terminal scans the token and a code is read there from. A promotional game program stored within the store's POS system then determines if the code from the token corresponds with a stored “winning” code number, and then randomly determines a prize to be awarded to the store customer. As such, Blumberg et al. teach an in-store merchandising tie-in and promotional system rather than any form of a lottery system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,099 to Walker et al. discloses an “up-sell” lottery game that can be conducted through the POS terminals of a multi-lane store. The '099 patent employs a lottery program stored within the POS operating system of a store in which the program prompts a sales clerk at a POS terminal to ask a customer if they wish to play a lottery type game for the change they are due after having received the customer's payment for the products already purchased. The '099 patent envisions using the customer's change as an up-sell, with the up-sell lottery monies going into a common storewide lottery jackpot. The lottery program determines who among the store's customers will be a winner. As such, Walker et al. do not teach a statewide on-line lottery system and gaming method.
The need still remains, therefore, for an efficient lottery gaming system and method for an efficient on-line lottery game system and sales method which will be minimally intrusive, either used with existing POS systems or not and which will not require undue amounts of store labor to safely and efficiently handle and dispense the lottery products, and which will also lower the cost of handling, stocking and replenishing on-line lottery supplies.